Suspended trio who missed out on Brownlow

* 1996: North Melbourne ruckman Corey McKernan became the first player to miss out on the Brownlow because of a suspension. He served a one-week ban early in the season for kneeing Geelong's John Barnes to the back of the head. Without the ban, McKernan would have tied with Essendon's James Hird and Brisbane's Michael Voss.

* 1997: Western Bulldogs key forward Chris Grant polls one more vote than St Kilda's Robert Harvey. But Grant is ineligible for a controversial one-week striking ban - an open-handed slap on Hawthorn opponent Nick Holland.

* 2012: Essendon's Jobe Watson wins the Brownlow, four votes ahead of Sam Mitchell (Hawthorn) and Trent Cotchin (Richmond). Four years later, the AFL strips Watson of the medal because of his doping ban, a consequence of the Essendon supplements debacle. In November last year, Mitchell and Cotchin were awarded their medals retrospectively at a special ceremony. It is understood Watson still has not handed back the medal to the AFL.

Carlton star Chris Judd won his second Brownlow in 2010. In round 13, he had thrown his elbow back and collected Fremantle's Matthew Pavlich across the cheek, drawing blood. But the match review panel did not charge him. When asked about the incident on stage after receiving the medal, Judd smiled and said "yeah I was probably a bit lucky".

* The Brownlow is awarded to the AFL's best and fairest player, as voted by the umpires. A player who is guilty of an offence deemed worthy of a suspension becomes ineligible. New Brownlow favourite Dustin Martin has been fined twice this season - if he is fined again, he will be suspended and that will make him ineligible.